NetOffice Light: Status Report

Set up an account at Sourceforge this week, so we now have a place to work: http://sourceforge.net/projects/netoffice-light/. If you have any specific requests, post them there.

As I have mentioned previously, our first step is to remove all the existing javascript. Yep, all of it. I'm a big fan of progressive enhancement and so we'll be looking to have everything working without any javascript. Sure, it won't be as fancy, but if you don't have javascript enabled for any reason, you'll at least be able to use it.

We'll then add the fabulous jQuery library which should take care of pretty much any scripting we need. (With the exception of the editor toolbar of course.)

We'll also get rid of all the layout tables and convert it over to a nice, tidy, CSS layout. There will still be plenty of tables, but we'll get them all sorted with class names so it shouldn't be too hard to write your own skins or themes.

So our first release will be very much the same (function-wise) as NetOffice 2.6 - but a 'plainish' version that we'll make available, so any designers out there that feel the urge can start preparing skins.

The "Client Site" in NetOffice

Getting ready to release our first version of NetOffice Light, and I was initially planning on removing the Client Site functionality altogether. This brought about a few protests - so I'm asking anyone who does use that function:

1. What parts do you use the most?


2. What parts do you use the least?


3. What's missing?

Specifically relating to the Client Site part of NetOffice. Thoughts anyone?

NetOffice Revitalised

Some time ago, I had some plans for a revitalised version of NetOffice that got shelved due to staff shortages.

Well, we're almost back to where we need to be and I've dusted off the folder ready to get back into it!

Will probably take a few weeks to get back up to speed. Will post again when we have something to show.

Some Priorities Have Changed

Been a couple of weeks since I posted here.

1. Went on holdays to Perisher! Fortunately, I did not break any bones!


2. Jamie (our programmer) packed his bags and moved to Brisbane. I knew that was coming - but was hoping it would be later rather than sooner.

So after being away for a bit over a week and then coming back to be a man down, things have been somewhat busy. And given the serious skills shortage we have here at the moment, it will probably stay that way for the short term at least.

So basically - my plans to work on NetOffice have to be shelved for the time being. Once things settle down I may be able to pick this up again, but I expect that will take some time.

Thanks to all who have commented and offered assistance, and especially to Kemie who emailed me a couple of designs. I hope to get back to this one day, but in the meantime it might be best if you check out the Dwins version which seems to be fairly active.

Things Are Getting Serious

Things must be getting serious - I have just set up a forum! :)

And you thought this was going to be a serious post...

It's at http://forum.rockyshark.com - empty at the moment but if you want to have any say on the direction of "NetOffice Light" then post away. Not totally sold on than name yet mind you, but Kemie has been good enough to start working on the new look, and that's the name used thus far.

[Edit 8 July: Forum has been taken offline for the time being...]

I Need A Name

What are we going to call this NetOffice fork? Another fork has been called NetOffice Dwins, so I'm thinking NetOffice Waterfall might be the go.

Or maybe NetOffice Light?

Dunno. Anyone got any other ideas?

RSS Feeds for NetOffice, Client Site Idea

I've managed to get an RSS feed working for task updates! Just need to tidy up the code and implement some security and I'll be able to add that in. With the hard work done we can also add feeds for other events/updates as well.

Thanks to all who commented on my previous post about what the future holds for this project. I'm starting to think about the 'client site'. It's not used by any of my clients in it's current form, but I think it might be useful to have the following:

1. Somewhere to upload comps or design ideas, and have the client log in and comment (or even vote) on design alternatives


2. Somewhere to upload documentation that everyone needs to access, in a very similar way to Basecamp

I have received a few offers of help which is much appeciated. I'll be contacting those people over the next week and we'll see if we can get something under way.

Stay tuned!!!

A New NetOffice?

There has been no activity on Netoffice for some time now. I contacted the current admins about taking it over some time ago but received no reply. So I'm thinking it might be about time to fork and start doing my own thing with it. I have a couple of thoughts:

1. I'd like to redo the header/footer and remove all presentational HTML so the look can be customised easier with CSS


2. Delete the 'Client Site' facility. None of my clients actually use it - it just gets in the way


3. Delete the 'Support Requests' for the same reason


4. Streamline the workflow - make it simpler to update a task and log time in the one step


5. Add project & task templates - make creating a new project simpler


6. Improve Milestone handling


7. Improve some of the reports


8. Add RSS feeds for project/task updates

Yep... that's a bit of work. I know these posts are being read... Are there any other thoughts out there?

Formatting for task descriptions

Thanks to Sawan for this suggestion - don't know why nobody thought of this earlier

Anyway, have just finished integrating TinyMCE with task descriptions in NetOffice. So now you can add lists, include hyperlinks, stikeout previous instructions etc etc!

A couple of things have been changed:

1. Obviously, TinyMCE files need to be copied into your NetOffice installation.


2. We have added a file called tinymce.php to the /includes/ directory. It only contains Javascript, but we've used a PHP include so we can pass variables to it later if we like. That will mean we can enable or disable certain buttons dynamically depending on other page variables.


3. This file is called in the head of the page, so /themes/deepblue/header.php has been adjusted accordingly. If you're using another theme, change your header.php to include /includes/tinymce.php.


4. Then obviously /tasks/edittask.php has been adjusted - basically just giving the textareas id attributes so TinyMCE can find them. There is also a little bit of code at the top of that file that calls a function to convert < and > to their HTML entities, which we don't want any more! So that's just been commented out for now.

That all might sound scary, but if you're using the standard Deep Blue theme that comes with NetOffice 2.6, all you need to do is unzip the following file into your NetOffice directory. I've even included TinyMCE so it should be pretty straight forward.

• Download ZIP file - 1.53 Mb

This is only tested with NetOffice 2.6 - I have no idea what will happen on earlier versions.

Also... just in case, make sure you back up your NetOffice installation so you can roll back if needed...

Updated Phase Status Report

Don't know if anyone has noticed this before, but there's a small bug in the Phase Status Report in Netoffice 2.6.

Each project is displayed slightly narrower than the previous, and if you have a few by the time you get to the last one it can be virtually unreadable. I finally got around to tracking it down (just missing a couple of closing DIVs) and fixing it.

But wait - there's more! (And it's not a free set of steak knives!)

I also adjusted the report so that it shows open projects that don't necessarily have phases defined in them, so you can still get an overall picture of everything on your plate.

Also also, I have added a closing line with each project that lists the Client (Organisation) name.

Download Zip file, 9191 bytes
Unzip into your Netoffice installation and it should be right to go. Two files are changed, so check the contents of the Zip file for their name and location and back them up before you overwrite them in case you want to go back.

Technorati tags: netoffice, phpcollab, project management

Finding Your Files

If you've ever had someone upload a file to a project in NetOffice, finding it can be a bit frustrating.

Did they upload it to the task? To the phase? Or just to the project?

I've changed the View Project page a little so that it shows all linked content, and also lists the task or phase they have been linked to.

Download ZIP File (10187 bytes)

Keeping an Eye on Your Milestones

The milestones feature was a nice introduction to NetOffice - but it was missing an easy way to get an overview of your upcoming milestones, and which ones you've missed!

I've added a hack for the NetOffice home page that lists your upcoming milestones underneath your projects and above your tasks. It lists them in date order (I'm too lazy to make it sortable).

Once a milestone has been reached and completed, edit the task and untick the 'Milestone' option. Then mark the task as complete. (Or you could just delete it I suppose - it's not really much use any more in this environment anyway.)

You can see I have a few milstones here to chase up and mark off...

To install, make a backup of your /general/home.php page and unzip this one in it's place.

You'll also need to open your /languages/lang_en.php file and add the following to the bottom of the list:
$strings['my_milestones'] = 'My Upcoming Milestones';

Download ZIP file, 6719 bytes.

Enjoy!

Upcoming tasks with weekly times

Another minor adjustment to NetOffice 2.6 reporting.

This one replaces the standard report (where you select project/user/stats/dates etc).

• The "Published" column is replaced with "Estmated Hours"


• Each time a new week starts, the estimated hours for that week are totalled and displayed.

The Resource Usage custom report is quite good for reviewing hous spent, but this one is to prevent you from allocating someone 356 hours worth of tasks in a week! (I'm not quite that bad, but I have a habit of just piling work up on people!)

Anyway, just unzip this and drop it on top of your old reports/resultsreport.php file.

Download ZIP file, 3941 bytes.

As usual, make sure you back up your old file first so you can go back to it if you like.

Enjoy!

Daily NetOffice Activity

This little report for NetOffice will email you a list of completed tasks for the day, as well as a list of any tasks that had any time logged against them (completed ot not). I'm lazy, and if I can get out of looking that info up I will!

Download the ZIP File, 3.7 kilobytes

Simply unzip this file into your /reports/ directory, and then you'll need to set up a cron job or a scheduled task (depending your Linux-ness or Windows-ness) to trigger this file every evening.

You will need to edit the to and from email details - check around line 20, right near the top of the file.

It doesn't require a login to activate, but it doesn't actually display the details of the report, nor will it allow you to follow any links from the page, so it's not really too much of a security issue.

Tested on my 2.6.0b2 install. Enjoy!

NetOffice 2.6.0b2 - Project Site improvements

I've called this post "Project Site Improvements"... But I suppose that depends on your point of view!

What I have done here is make the team task arrangement in the project site a little clearer. In the main application, tasks are neatly divided into Open, Closed and Milestones. But in the Project Site (that clients log in to) they are all bundled together.

With this mod, that same logical grouping is applied to Team Tasks for your clients to see as well.

I've also shifted the Gantt chart to the bottom of the page, and wrapped it in a div so that (at 1024x768 anyway) your clients won't have to scroll horizontally because of a wide Gantt Chart.

Unzip the contents of the zip file into your projects_site folder. As usual, back that folder up first in case you don't like what I've done!

Download ZIP file, 3005 bytes.

Works with NetOffice 2.0.6b2, untested on other versions. Enjoy!

NetOffice 2.6.0b2 - and a few report mods

NetOffice recently released the Beta 2 version of 2.6.0 - with some nice additions. Milestones are the most useful new feature, and could be the basis of some useful (although not yet written) reports.

Whilst on the subject of reports, my only real gripe with NetOffice (and similar products) is resource management. So I've modified a couple of their reports to make that job a little easier.

Completed Tasks with Times

The first report changes the existing Completed Tasks report to also include both Estimated Time and Actual Time for each task. Useful for checking how good your estimating is! Also good for keeping a bit of an eye on how each employee or sub contractor is going.

Download Zip File (2160 bytes)
Simply unzip this file and save over the top of the old one in the reports folder in your NetOffice installation.

Tasks with Estimated Times

With NetOffice's inbuilt reporting, it's not hard to see all the tasks you have allocated to someone. (Just choose their username, and then 'open' and 'not started' from the status.) This report displays the estimated time for each task instead of whether the task is published or not, which from my point of view is far more useful.

Download Zip File (3564 bytes)
Simply unzip this file and save over the top of the old one in the reports folder in your NetOffice installation.

A word of warning...

Both these reports overwrite existing NetOffice reports, so back them both up first just in case you don't like what I've done. Both are tested with 2.6.0b2, I don't know how they'll work on other versions.

Cheers!

Bye Bye phpCollab, Hello NetOffice

I have been a phpCollab user for several years, and last week made the switch over to NetOffice.

Why?

One of the main reasons is that phpCollab is still stuck on version 2.4, and has been for along time. Sure, they have a 2.5 in beta, but that's been in beta for a long time, too. NetOffice have a stable 2.5, a 2.6 beta, and a starting to get some direction for a 3.0 release. Bug fixes seem to be attended to in a reasonable amount of time for an open source project, so we've migrated over to the 2.6 release. It features:

• An improved interface


• Time tracking


• Built-in customised reports


• Meetings

I feel that time tracking is the most important addition. With some minor customisations, we will be able to run a billing report so we can send an itemised invoice for each project. We can see how many billable hours have been done each week (and hence measure productivity). We can check each person's workload based upon estimated hours allocated with each task. Useful stuff.

We'll get some of these mods together and post them here soon...